Frisbeer Cup 2014 report by Tom Leitner

13/02/2014 12:36

Frisbeer 2014 flat out rocked!

Last weekend players from 10 countries (the US, England, Finland, Denmark, France, Poland, Germany, Italy, Israel and the Czech Republic) converged on Prague as over 60 competitors played their hearts out on the streets
and in the 5 Gyms used over the course of the weekend.

The level of play was world class and having 60+ players competing made it one of the largest non worlds events since the 1980's. (2010 Frisbeer and 2006 EFC in Rome also had 60+ players)

The event was organized for only two days this year as such a big turnout of players wasn't originally expected. As a result there wasn't enough time to do three rounds of pairs so making the cut was very difficult as each of the 4 pools had at least 2 super strong teams who you would need to beat to make the cut.
The carnival format of alternating judges & pools was used to save time and in the end all the highly ranked teams advanced.

The Co-op Semis was filled with lots of shredding but my favorite routine of the day was Philipp L, Phil K and Stephan D - they played very well and hit some of the most dynamic and consecutively difficult moves of the day.

Saturday night the Cross Club party started a bit slow with lots of casual mingling but eventually evolved into a full on dance party with Emma leading the players from the Frisbeer Lounge down stairs to the dance floor. Rumor has it that Mehrdad lead the way, winning the party along with Robert D, Marc O, Phil K, Jan Soerensen, Ben E and Nico S - they didn't leave the Cross Club until after sunrise!

Sunday started with the Mixed Pairs finals and it was a pleasure the watch 2 new and very talented female players: Anna Bragagnolo from Udine, Italy and Martina Solarova from Prague. Martina and Lukas began their routine perfectly and showed some very cool co-ops through out. Anna played with Emmanuele who's also from Udine and she went dropless including doing some wonderful acrobatic
moves. Can't wait to see these ladies improve.

Hands down the best routine of the Mixed and one of the best of the tournament was Pavel and Emma's shredding final. They left no doubt about who would carry away the 1st place Fris-Beer Mug trophy.

The Pairs final was packed with top players and in the end Mehrdad and Randy got 3rd with a strong and clean effort. Pavel and Marco Prati took 2nd as they kept their difficulty super high and had very few mistakes. Winning the pairs were the 'G Bros' Matt and Jake Gauthier. They hit some stunning moves but even more impressive was their ability to react to changing disc angles or situations with confidence and dexterity while never losing the flow.

I wasn't able to watch all the teams in the co-op final but I'm sure that Ryan Young, Sasha Hohne and Emmanuele Faustini must've played very well to reach the podium in 3rd place. In 2nd was me, Fabio Sanna and Jason Salkey with an almost flawless 2 drop routine that put pressure on the final team of Paul Kenny, James Wiseman and Dan O'Neil who were showing their new routine for the 1st time. Though they had some drops their presentation was great and they hit a very entertaining and technically difficult routine to take the title.

Congrats to all the finalists and to Matt Gauthier for winning the spirit of the jam award (hand painted by Dexter himself)!!!

There were lots of jams before the event took place including in front of the national Theatre on Thursday and Friday in relatively mild weather and at the practice gym / tent on Friday where we played for four hours. We also had several after jams on Monday - including a wonderful jam at Wenceslas Square in the center of Prague and then another by the River at Malostranská and finally at the Prague 'training' tent where the final Frisbeer jams went on until 10pm. Wow, I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Jakub Kostel and Dexter did the lions share of the work organizing and running the event which was no easy task and Katerina tirelessly calculated the scores sacrificing her own jam time. Mahoney, Jakub Hosek, Irena, Lukas, Pavel and the rest of the Prague crew all helped as well - to all we owe a sincere debt of gratitude.

Frisbeer is a labor of love which is felt from all the players

One of the coolest things was listening to jammers explain how fired up they
were about this jam or that jam over the course of the weekend. Yes there was competition but in the end some of the best memories were jamming with people we don't get to jam with very often and getting into the zone.

This was the eighth Frisbeer cup and one of the best ever not only because of the incredible turnout but because of the nonstop fun / party factor and the high level of spirit shown by everyone there.